Excerpts:
Narduzzi is perhaps best known around these parts as being a close friend of former coach Scott Shafer. The two previously worked together at Rhode Island and Northern Illinois................Conner is one of the best stories in all of college football. He rehabbed a serious knee injury and beat cancer this past year to storm back and now sits 55 yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark this year.....More than half of Price's tackles have come behind the line of scrimmage. He leads Pitt with 19 tackles for loss, 11 sacks and 11 quarterback hits and three forced fumbles. He is two sacks shy of tying former All-American Aaron Donald for fourth on the school's all-time list.........It would be criminal to pick out one guy on this unit (though Bisnowaty would be our guy if pressed)..... There is no perhaps no return man more dynamic than Henderson, who has returned four kicks this season for touchdowns....The Pittsburgh offensive line have started all 11 games together this season, and Bisnowaty, Johnson and Officer have all started at least 30 games in their careers...Quarterback Nate Peterman lost Tyler Boyd to the NFL, but he has his home-run threat in Weah.......
What Pitt does:
Pitt will run and use the play-action pass game, leaning on running back James Conner but also utilizing utility man Quadree Henderson, who does a little bit of everything on the field. And don't sleep on tight end Scott Orndoff, who leads the Panthers with 32 receptions.
Matchup to watch
If Eric Dungey wasn't a question mark, it could be tempting to say Pitt's porous secondary against a passing attack that is among the best in the country. But, despite what the statistics tell you, this is a Syracuse offense that looks and plays nothing like the one when Dungey is under center. So, the onus is on Syracuse's young offensive line to keep the quarterback clean and muster a running game. And it's on an even younger defensive line to penetrate Pitt's veteran offensive line and slow down its running game.
LINK:
http://www.syracuse.com/orangefootb...out_pittsburgh_the_oranges_next_oppone_1.html
Narduzzi is perhaps best known around these parts as being a close friend of former coach Scott Shafer. The two previously worked together at Rhode Island and Northern Illinois................Conner is one of the best stories in all of college football. He rehabbed a serious knee injury and beat cancer this past year to storm back and now sits 55 yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark this year.....More than half of Price's tackles have come behind the line of scrimmage. He leads Pitt with 19 tackles for loss, 11 sacks and 11 quarterback hits and three forced fumbles. He is two sacks shy of tying former All-American Aaron Donald for fourth on the school's all-time list.........It would be criminal to pick out one guy on this unit (though Bisnowaty would be our guy if pressed)..... There is no perhaps no return man more dynamic than Henderson, who has returned four kicks this season for touchdowns....The Pittsburgh offensive line have started all 11 games together this season, and Bisnowaty, Johnson and Officer have all started at least 30 games in their careers...Quarterback Nate Peterman lost Tyler Boyd to the NFL, but he has his home-run threat in Weah.......
What Pitt does:
Pitt will run and use the play-action pass game, leaning on running back James Conner but also utilizing utility man Quadree Henderson, who does a little bit of everything on the field. And don't sleep on tight end Scott Orndoff, who leads the Panthers with 32 receptions.
Matchup to watch
If Eric Dungey wasn't a question mark, it could be tempting to say Pitt's porous secondary against a passing attack that is among the best in the country. But, despite what the statistics tell you, this is a Syracuse offense that looks and plays nothing like the one when Dungey is under center. So, the onus is on Syracuse's young offensive line to keep the quarterback clean and muster a running game. And it's on an even younger defensive line to penetrate Pitt's veteran offensive line and slow down its running game.
LINK:
http://www.syracuse.com/orangefootb...out_pittsburgh_the_oranges_next_oppone_1.html
